The 38-hour transport strike called by the Faridpur district bus workers and owners caused a loss of at least half a crore taka.
Sources said, the number of minibuses and big transport buses in Faridpur is 576. Among them, 131 are minibuses, 195 local route big buses and 250 transport buses.
Executive Member of Faridpur District Bus Owners' Association Kamrul Islam Siddiqui said that a minibus owner makes between Tk1,500 and Tk2,000 every day. The two-day total revenue for all minibuses is almost Tk5,24,000.
The average two-day revenue for a large local bus is Tk7,80,000.
In long-distance buses, the daily wage is at least Tk2,500–3,000.
It indicates that the combined two-day revenue of all the long-distance buses in this district is almost Tk15 lakh. The proprietors have suffered a loss of around Tk28 lakh in total.
The driver, supervisor, and driver's assistant are among the minimum of three employees that are known to be present on every bus, according to the transport workers.
A daily compensation of at least Tk2,000 is paid to three employees on average. 576 bus drivers earned a total of Tk23,04,000 over the course of two days. In light of this, the overall loss to bus owners and drivers exceeds Tk51 lakh.
On November 7, on the initiative of the District Bus Owners and Workers Unity Council, an ultimatum was given to the Dhaka divisional commissioner to stop the movement of all types of illegal three-wheelers on highways as directed by the High Court.
According to reports, all bus and minibus services in Faridpur was to be shut down for 38 hours if this demand is not met by Thursday at 12:00pm. From 9am on last Thursday, miking began in the city 15 hours before the ultimatum's expiration. After that, all bus routes resumed operation with five hours remaining in the 38-hour strike.
The BNP leaders, however, took issue with the buses being stopped for disturbing their mass gathering on November 12 in Faridpur district. On November 9, the Vice Chairman of BNP and the Chief Coordinator of the Faridpur divisional mass meeting Dr AZM Zahid Hussain alleged that the strike was called in the name of Bus-Minibus Owners Association to disrupt BNP's mass gathering, curtail public gatherings and create public suffering.
District Bus Owners and Workers Unity Council General Secretary Golam Md Nasir claimed that BNP's complaint is not correct and said: “According to the decision of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, we demanded to take steps to stop illegal traffic on the highway. But that demand was not accepted. As a result, all long-distance bus services were stopped from Faridpur from 6am on Friday to 8pm on Saturday.”